


Travel Arrangements

by weakinteraction



Category: West Wing
Genre: F/M, Unresolved Romantic Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-31
Updated: 2015-10-31
Packaged: 2018-04-28 13:04:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5091818
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/weakinteraction/pseuds/weakinteraction
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A little Josh and Donna moment set during the first Bartlet for America campaign.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Travel Arrangements

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SuburbanSun](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SuburbanSun/gifts).



BARTLET CAMPAIGN HEADQUARTERS  
MANCHESTER, NEW HAMPSHIRE  
14TH JANUARY, 1998  


Josh came into the room running his hands through his hair and muttering under his breath. Donna wordlessly handed him his coffee and waited for him to take a big swig before saying, "Toby and CJ both wanted me to remind you about the thing at seven o'clock, but--"

"What thing at seven o'clock?" Josh interrupted.

"They didn't say, just 'the thing'. But--"

Josh stopped pacing. "Is it the same thing?"

"Josh--"

"It's not, is it? Toby means the message calendar meeting, and CJ means that interview." He started pacing again, more frenetically. "I can't be in two places at once! Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of things I can do, but even the world's most brilliant scientists haven't actually come up with a means by which I can actually be in two places at once. That would have been headline news even during primary season, right?"

"Josh!" Donna shouted.

"Man, a screw up like this would never have happened on the Hoynes campaign."

Donna gave him her best "whatever" look. She had been working on it a lot over the last few months she had been working for him, and she felt pleased that this time it stopped him in his tracks. "Josh. You told me you left the Hoynes campaign because it had no soul, that you'd rather lose the election with someone who actually knew what he wanted to do with the presidency than win it with someone who would get things done just because they were the things that could get done."

"I said that?" Josh stopped. "I mean, it sounds like the sort of thing I might say, but I don't remember saying it."

"At the Christmas party," Donna said. "You were pretty drunk at the time."

"Well, I'm Jewish so really for me Christmas parties--"

"Yeah, you said all that then too. Josh, listen to me. You're not doing either of the things at seven o'clock. Not Toby's thing and not CJ's thing."

Josh blinked a few times. "I'm not?"

"I told them you couldn't. Toby says it's fine, you were in all the meetings where the calendar was agreed, this is just a meeting for informing everyone else."

"I was in meetings about the message calendar?"

"I think he means all those times in the hotel bar." All those times when she'd watched him from the table where she sat with the more senior interns, glancing away if he turned towards her, staying superficially involved in the conversation so that the others around her didn't catch on to the real object of her interest.

"Oh, right."

"And CJ doesn't want you to do the interview anyway. She thinks this guy wants to try and trip you up with questions about why you left Hoynes and use it for a story about how the Bartlet campaign is the last chance saloon for failures, wash-ups and cranks."

Josh sat down. "I get it ... the governor as the biggest crank of all. Well, that's a bullet dodged." Donna once again tried not to find how dogmatic Josh was about calling Mr Bartlet "the governor" or "the candidate" cute, but once again failed. He looked up at her. "But if I'm not doing the interview, I can go to Toby's meeting. Why did you tell him I couldn't?"

"Because, Mr Senior Political Director, by seven o'clock you will be on a plane halfway to California."

"No, no, no, no, no," Josh said, collapsing into his chair. "Donna, I have been up since five o'clock this morning, and when I walked in this office it was looking like it was just about possible that I might -- might! -- get to bed before midnight tonight. But now you're telling me that by the time it's midnight it'll actually only be nine o'clock. No."

"Ask me the question," Donna said, once he'd finally finished complaining.

Josh looked defeated. "Why am I getting on a plane to California?" he asked sullenly.

"Because Chris Sanderson called and said he wanted a meeting. A face-to-face meeting. With you."

It was like watching Josh's mind at work in real time. His eyes went wide with surprise, then narrowed again as he worked out all the implications. Only then did he jump up out of his chair and start talking about it at even faster speed than usual. She let him explain all the things she already knew, all the things she'd seen him work out in those few moments of watching his expression. "Chris Sanderson from California? The teachers union guy who's like the head cheerleader of the West Coast John Hoynes Pep Squad? Wants to talk to me?" He stopped for just a moment, looking worried. The gleeful tone disappeared. "He does know I don't work for Hoynes any more, right?"

"He knows," Donna said. "That's what he wants the meeting about. He wants to know why."

"Hoynes's education speech last week was too middle of the road for him!" Josh punched the air. "Whereas my candidate's positions _are_ his positions. I'm not even going to have to massage anything. This is just amazing; if we can get Sanderson to flip before Super Tuesday, it could make a huge difference to the whole campaign. We can make a big deal of it in the press, get some more momentum stories going ... If he comes out for us publicly before the primary here, we might even beat the polls that say he's going to win his home state in a landslide. Donna, this is perfect!" He grabbed her by the arms and for just a single, glorious moment she thought he might kiss her.

The moment passed, though, and then they were just standing awkwardly, Josh's hands on her. He let go gently and Donna felt a sudden intense pang of disappointment that nothing had happened.

"Your flight leaves in an hour," she told him matter-of-factly, when neither of them had said anything for slightly too long. She reached over to the desk and picked up the ticket and associated paperwork to pass to him.

"Right, well, then," Josh said, seeming a little distracted. Was he feeling the same thing she was about whatever it was that hadn't just happened? "I need to get to the airport. No, I need to get to the hotel! I need to pack."

Donna held up a holdall. "I already did it for you."

"You went in my hotel room?" Josh said, a note of panic in his voice.

"I explained the situation to that nice girl Tracy on reception and she let me in."

"You just packed overnight stuff, right? You didn't look--" Josh was suddenly searching her face. He clearly decided she hadn't looked wherever it was, and shut up again. She wondered to herself where it had been, and what it was he was worried about.

"Go," she told him. "There's a volunteer outside ready to drive you."

Josh picked up the holdall, checked the ticket and headed for the door. "You can handle clearing my schedule of all the things I've got to do here? Toby and Sam can handle most of it but we'll have to ask Leo to--" She gave him the face and he said, "You already have, haven't you?" Donna simply nodded.

She counted mississippis to herself in her head, and reached five before the shout of "Donna!", seven before he came rushing back through the door.

"Yes, Josh?" she said, smiling sweetly.

"I've just realised! I need to have a layover in Honolulu on the way back. If Sanderson flips, then we can probably get Konane Kalani to go with him. They were--"

"--roommates at Berkeley. If you can get Sanderson on board, he can call Kalani while you're on the next plane."

"That's right. And while he's still thinking about what Chris has told him, bam! there I am in person to give him a Lyman lovebomb ... which is a phrase I'm never going to use again."

"Good," said Donna, while trying not to imagine what it could mean.

"Well, we need to--"

"Josh, have you actually looked at those tickets?"

Josh leafed through them. He looked up at her with a face drained of all expression by his surprise. "You already did it."

"Technically, LAX would be the layover," she said. It had been bugging her since he'd said it. "You can't--"

"Right," Josh said distractedly.

"And it's even worse on the time zones front, I'm afraid."

"The Republicans don't have these problems visiting their base."

"We should definitely get the FEC to look into the political bias of ... y'know, geography."

Josh started to nod along before realising she was joking, then looked a bit sheepish. "There's Alaska, I guess," he said eventually. He looked through the tickets again. He looked up at her, this time in confusion. "Why am I flying back to Portland?"

"You can join up with Advance for the Washington visit," Donna said. "We'll be there the next day anyway. I checked with Leo and he said he 'wasn't averse to the idea' of having a senior staffer on the ground. I think he's worried that our campaign in Washington may be made up entirely of students in favour of marijuana being legalised."

"But the candidate is against legalisation," Josh said.

"He's not quite as against it as everyone else, I guess," Donna said. "Maybe they think because Mrs Bartlet's a doctor ..."

He looked at her again. "But ... how did you know? To do all this? I maybe mentioned that thing about those two being roommates once, months ago ..."

"I remember things, Josh," Donna said. Especially the things you tell me, she didn't add. "I retain information. I'm like a sponge. A highly effective and organised sponge."

"OK, that analogy isn't going where you wanted, is it?"

"I'll take it over 'Lyman lovebomb'," Donna said.

"Touché," Josh said.

"You need to go," she said, glancing at the clock significantly.

"Right, yes. I need to go." They were standing close again now, the awkwardness between them returned. Was he going to kiss her goodbye? Even a friendly peck on the cheek would be something, but in the end he just patted her arm. "That was ... good work today, Donna. Well done. This could be _really_ big for the campaign."

And then he was gone. Donna stood for a moment, considering. He had actually praised her. There hadn't been an actual thank you in there, mind, but he had shown appreciation for her work rather than taking it for granted that she would magically make everything work. And just for a moment -- for two different moments, actually -- it had seemed that he might kiss her, and it was at least not completely impossible that he had felt it too.

And now, he had gone to the airport. She had two days before Portland to really get on top of organising everything, she congratulated herself, even while another part of her knew that she would be spending that whole time overanalysing every minute detail of her memories of the conversation they'd just had. Being a sponge -- even a highly effective and organised one -- definitely had its drawbacks.

This had been a good day, though, she decided. She allowed herself a small grin and got back to work.


End file.
